BLS January Jobs Report: Construction Sectors Still Hurting

Construction, manufacturing, and architecture and engineering all added jobs in January, but several construction sectors are still seeing the impact of December's losses.

The construction, manufacturing, and architecture and engineering sectors of the American economy all added jobs in January, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in their monthly employment report released Friday.

Following an unexpected dip in job growth in December (which BLS revised up only slightly, from 74,000 jobs added to 75,000 jobs added), this first month of 2014 was a breath of fresh air, adding 113,000 jobs. That growth is still lower than last year's average monthly job growth (194,000 per month), as well as less than last January's revised growth of 197,000 jobs. Today's report also shows less growth than the 175,000 jobs reported by payroll company ADP and Moody's Analytics on Wednesday.

Construction added 48,000 jobs in January, a comeback from significant losses in December, which were actually revised for the worse in today's report (from a loss of 16,000 to a loss of 22,000). Manufacturing added 21,000 jobs in January, and architectural and engineering services added 4,800. These additions bring the total payroll of these industries to 5.92 million (construction), 12.08 million (manufacturing), and 1.38 million (architectural and engineering services).

Within the construction industry, residential building construction accounted for the largest share of growth, adding 13,200 jobs in January. Nonresidential specialty trade contractors is the largest construction sector, employing 2.11 million people. While that sector added 12,900 jobs in January, it still is not enough to recoup December's loss of 13,300 jobs (revised from a initially reported loss of 12,900 jobs). Heavy and civil engineering construction added 10,100 jobs, which also was not enough to make up for the revised loss of 13,100 jobs in December. The total payroll for heavy and civil engineering was 886,800 jobs in January.